Dhaka:  Death-row convict Mir Quasem Ali sought more time from the Kashimpur jail authorities to decide on whether he will apply for presidential mercy on Thursday.

Kashimpur jail-2 Senior Jail Super Prashanta Kumar Banik said Mir Quasem Ali wanted more time from the jail authorities at about 11:00am as the jail officials went to know the Jamaat leader’s decision on seeking presidential clemency.

‘We’ve asked Mir Quasem whether he’ll seek presidential mercy and in reply he sought time to think about it. We’ll give him reasonable time but not more than seven days,’ said the IG Prison on Wednesday afternoon while talking to reporters at the Department of Prisons in Dhaka.

The verdict copy was sent to Kashimpur Jail on Tuesday night and the jail authorities read out the copy to Quasem Ali at about 7:30am on Wednesday morning.

Some family members of the condemned Jamaat-e-Islami leader met him at the jail on Wednesday afternoon.

Six members of Mir Quasem’s family — his wife Khandaker Ayesha Khatun, two daughters Sumaiya Rabeya and Tahera Taslim, two daughters-in-law Tahmina Akter and Shaheda Tahmida and his nephew Hasan Zaman — entered the jail gate at about 1:30pm.

‘Mir Quasem Ali wants to wait until the last minute to decide whether he will seek presidential clemency, and before that, he wants to see his son barrister Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem who remained missing for the last couple of days’, says quasem’s wife Ayesha Khatun.

Mir Quasem will decide about the mercy after talking to his son, she added.

Iftekhar Uddin said necessary steps about executing the verdict will be taken as per the jail code after knowing the decision of Quasem Ali about presidential mercy.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon released the full text of the verdict rejecting the review pleas of condemned war crimes convict Mir Quasem Ali.

The written text was released after a five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, signed the copy of the verdict turning down the review petition against its earlier order upholding Mir Quasem’s death sentence for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

The five-member Appellate Division bench upheld the death penalty for war criminal Mir Quasem Ali on Tuesday morning.

Talking to reporters after the verdict, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said now the only option left for Mir Quasem is to seek presidential clemency.

‘If the Jamaat-e-Islami leader seeks presidential mercy, the government will act as per the President’s decision and if he does not file any mercy petition, the government will take necessary steps to execute the verdict anytime,’ Alam said.

There is no time limitation about executing the verdict and there is no provision either, he said.

On 19 June, Barrister Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, son of Mir Quasem, filed the 68-page review petition with the Appellate Division against the death penalty handed down to him for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) issued death warrant for Mir Quasem hours after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty on 6 June.

On 8 March, the Appellate Division upheld the death penalty for Mir Quasem Ali for his war crimes.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Mir Quasem Ali, Al-Badr chief in the port city of Chittagong in 1971, to death on 2 November 2014.

On 30 November 2014, he filed an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the death penalty.

Top Jamaat-e-Islami financier Quasem, now 64, was president of the Chittagong town unit of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, till 6 November 1971.

He was then made general secretary of the East Pakistan Chhatra Sangha.